How to Improve your Pitching with Knee Drills

Clubhouse Gas Casey: Today on Clubhouse Gas, University of Georgia Pitching Coach Brady Wiederhold is back to give us some more great tips on pitching stay tune to Clubhouse Gas. Brady: I like to do things very— exactly the same thing I’m doing now is exactly the same thing I’m doing with my guys, but keep it slow down and very simple, alright. And the first thing we do is we breakdown what our body is going to do right from the beginning, alright, and in order to do that I just, I take the very first drill we do and for the lack of a better term I call it knee drill number 1. Alright, you can call it anything you want but I don’t have highly technical terms so it’s called knee drill number 1. But what we do on knee drill number 1 is that we go down on one knee and hope they don’t get off the mike but we just simply go down on one knee here right knees down left knees up for right handlers it’s reverse for left handlers, okay and you guys that are sitting here you’re going to go wow we did that at camp and when I was 6 you know they just throwing and catching coach why would I do that. Well we do exactly the same thing but I’m going to show you what I’m looking for instead of sitting here like you did with your buddy Jimmy in camp and just flopping it back and forth and chase the ball against the fence, alright. So what we do is we go down on one knee right knees down, left knee is up. Now what I have done taking about a knee is I totally taken the lower half of my body out of the equation. I’m worried about the upper body only, alright and what’s happening and all I’m focused on here is how I break my hands and how I rotate my shoulders towards home plate, alright. Direction is big with me, direction is huge. If this is the center line and home plates right in front of me. Since baseball has been invented, gentlemen and the plate has never moved. I don’t think not that I’m aware off, I don’t think home plate has ever shifted other than being straight in front a pitching rep, alright. And you laugh but it’s true. Right you find so many guys getting off that line, alright. So direction is very big for me and until the day in the arena baseball I can do a football and they start shifting the plate this way or shift the plate this way, the plate is still going to be right in front, alright. So everything we do once we would be geared toward our body our momentum, our power, everything is going towards that home plate area, right towards our catcher and so we want to stay in that straight line and what’s happening guys when you take yourself off your center line is again we go to back to your health issue you’re taking extremely. You’re putting too much, extremely too much pressure on your elbow, and the shoulder, alright. And it’s not going to hurt you when your 10, it’s done I could drop you holding by your feet. Drop you on your head. You’re going to bounce right back up. Right, I mean that’s the way it works when you’re 10. I wish I was 10 again but as you get older and you continue to do that and you continue to run towards that other plate and you do it again, and you do it again and you’re going to throw a curve ball wah!. You’re going to do this, over time it starts to break down your arm, okay. And when you become 15, 16, 17, and 18 when I get you alright you start to have those issues and so we want to take that away especially at a young age if we possibly can or correct some of those issues when they get older. You talk abut Maddux, you talk about Glavin, you talk about guys who had been successful for long periods of time. Alright there were basics that they accomplish, alright and one is making sure that their directional alright and they stay straight to the plate for the most part. Okay, I mean even Maddux you know he’s got that little hop at the end hop at the end and he was with the Braves and now you see him, yeah he gets that little hop and everything is going towards home place. Alright so that’s very important how we get there and staying in a straight line. But as far as everybody looking exactly the same, that’s not gong to happen guys have different arm angles some guys are more successful here, some guys are more successful more over the top. As long as they stay behind the baseball, I want what is natural as far as arm slot goes, alright and like I said I could go on and on and on but let me get back to the original drill. I call it knee drill number 1 and I’m just going to say the wall is my partner either my catcher and you would get with a buddy and be no more than that 20 25 feet apart and I didn’t have— I’ve got my glove but I didn’t bring a baseball like you can stay in after than that. Period you’re my man. But I have got I’m using my partner over here at the side; alright I take in the legs totally out of it. Knee drill number 1 and all I’m accomplishing here is I’m turning my shoulders like I was coming in stretch position alright there’s a guy that’s on the base who doesn’t matter right now just coming in a stretch position. Now I’m worried about how I break my hands and how I rotate my shoulders towards home play. Alright and so the two things that I’m looking for here, there’s only 2 alright. One as I break my hands am I getting on the top of the baseball on the back side. Am I getting here, notice I didn’t say how I got it there. I used to be that guy, you know 15 years ago I started college coaching, you know form the thigh reach through the sky, you might have heard that before if you’ve had pitching lessons or something from the thigh reach to the sky, going to get long loopy and be on top. Again, watch the guys from the big leagues alright, there’s some guys that are shorter, some that are medium, some guys that are longer. Alright, the main key no matter how you get it out of there alright is that you get on top of the backside. That’s big cue, you could go drifts you could do it all but stay and get on top 1 that takes a tremendous amount of pressure off of this and off of this. Yeah, you would be amazed guys even at our level that will come and will break their hands and they’ll be on the side of the baseball here. They’ll get on the side and not get all the way or even 3 quarters they’ll get about here, alright, and then they’re trying to stay on top of the ball. Well they can’t really because they can’t, the elbow has got to drop so force your momentum going forward and so you can’t stay on top of the ball and you get a lot of action that you don’t want so the number 1 key that’s why we do breakdown with a knee drill is get on top of the baseball in the backside. No matter what the grip is be it fast ball, if you change it will be your breaking ball. Get on top facing the other direction that’s extremely important for younger guys as well, because you’ll see guys they’ll go in there like a thorn of shot put. They’ll pull it out and chunk it over you. Going to the Olympics or something you know shot put throw. You don’t have any power and you loose a lot of power, you’re command can’t be there as a pitcher which means throwing a lot of strikes and you’re putting extremely too much pressure on the elbow and the shoulder. Alright, so on the back side we’re worried about getting on top of the baseball. Alright, now I’m going to face you guys now and everybody won’t be able to see this but with my lead arm, okay, this is what’s important to me. Alright, this is what helps keep direction, now remember I said stay in on that center line. I’m going to break my hands two different ways and the guys are right in front of me may be able to see it other ones you probably can’t right now. But I’m going to break it in two different directions or two different ways and I want you to notice how and watch my front shoulder and front shoulder only. As I break my hands which way is my front shoulder more directly in line or on the center line. I’m not going to get on that thing it would kill my knee but we stay in the center line here towards home plate and it goes A, and B, A and B and without asking anybody alright those two different ways, the one that would be better for me and keeps my shoulder more in line, alright. One more time there’s A and there’s B is B alright B keeps my front shoulder locked in more here alright as I break I’m on top of the back side alright but what’s happening here is what I call draping. If I had a towel and I could drape it right over my arm right there down on this window that’s the position I want to be in. Notice I’m not in here; I’m not taking my glove and poking it to my chest here. I have a lot of room but I could drape a towel right over there. Okay, and the reason being now my shoulder and if I was standing up my knee, hip, ankle, everything would be in line towards the catcher. If I do the table pointing towards my target which a lot of us were taught when we were younger and I was to point towards my target because that is keeping you in a straight line. My front shoulder is immediately starting to go over here. Alright towards my guys who gave me the ball. It’s immediately starting to go over here. Now I’m trying to go there, my momentum is already taking me here so as I start to rotate towards the catcher. I got to touch the glove. Dad told me to do that when I was 6 you know I have to immediately start to tilt my shoulders, head starts to tilt, my momentum, my weight, my power is going this way when again right from the beginning when I told you we need to stay on that center line and stay straight, alright. So if I’d go draping here with the front arm and drape my towel that allows me now as I start to rotate my shoulders they stay square. The head stays leveled I may be able to stay at the top of the ball here, alright. And as my chest starts to go towards my glove I can stay over the top of the ball. I can get what I call nose over toes at the end and I can reach out and touch the mitt and finish in a straight line and have something behind the ball instead of my momentum going this way and taking away form power behind the ball, alright.